Answers

I coach a lot of CEO's, but they weren't CEO's when I started coaching them. As they got better at what they did, more opportunities opened up for them.

The same is true in your business network. The people you start getting to know now will become more influential over time which will open up more opportunities for you and them.

It sounds like you want to skip a step, in other words, by connecting with influential people you'll instantly gain a Trusted Advisor Community. It's just that it doesn't really work that way. You have to get to know people step by step. And the first step is to surround yourself with people you like and trust. Get to know them and help them and over time you will develop your own network, which is much more valuable (to you and them) than piggybacking on someone else's network.

In terms of how I connect with people, I'm always happy to talk to someone who wants to get to know me better. I'm leery if it seems that they just want access to my network or just want to sell me something.

My specific advice is to join groups on LinkedIn that have similar minded people to you, get involved in the conversation, and get to know them. Over time you'll build up a strong network which I think is what you're looking for anyway.

If you want to talk in more detail about techniques for meeting more people and expanding your referral network feel free to set up a call.

You don't mention why you want to be introduced to this high profile person. If it's to sit down for a networking coffee that's fine, as long as it's not just a pretense for asking for money or advice.

On the other hand, I think you're making too much out of this. If you already know people who know the person, just reach out to them, tell them why you'd like to meet this person, and ask if they would be comfortable making an introduction.

Just make sure you're honest about why you want to meet. Otherwise you'll destroy the trust with this person and with the people in your referral network.

Good luck, and feel free to set up a call if you want to discuss further.

I've started two businesses without going to graduate school. I'm more of a hands-on learner, so I wanted to spend the two years actually starting a business rather than thinking about / learning about starting a business.

The caveat is that my first business was part of a franchise system. Working within their system ended up being like a hands-on MBA program for me, with the benefit that after two years I had a viable business instead of no business and lots of debt.

There are plenty of good reasons to go to graduate school. And people do come out of graduate school with a strong network. But that's not a good reason to go. Plenty of people who haven't been to graduate school have strong networks.

I recommend being clear about what you want to be doing, and determine if graduate school will help you get there faster.

If you want to further discuss how graduate school might (or might not) be in line with your goals, I'd be happy to set up a call.

There isn't really any such thing as a smooth transition. There will always be a leap of faith, when the new venture isn't quite providing enough income yet starts demanding an inordinate amount of your time and energy.

I lost my job in 2001 at a time when there weren't many jobs in my industry, so I was forced into entrepreneurship. It turned out to be a great thing, because I love working for myself and I don't think I ever would have had the guts to walk away from a steady job. So I understand your concerns.

I did have an opportunity to do more what you're talking about a few years later. As I transitioned that first business to my business team I would work in that business for the morning, then go work on my new second business in the afternoon. It was great, because I was motivated to get all my work done in the morning so I could pursue my passion in the afternoon. It wasn't smooth, though. Some days I spent all my time at the first business. Some days I had to leave the first business hanging in favor of the second. And even though I have a great team in the first business it was still a leap of faith to commit myself full time to my new venture.

Now my team runs the first business and I'm full time in the second business.

It's doable. I just wouldn't ever expect it to be smooth.

If you want to set up a call I would be happy to hear more about your situation and help you think through a strategy to smooth out this transition as much as possible.

You stay calm by having options. And by staying calm it's easier to think of more options. And that's your job when you're running a lean start up because you're always just about to run out of money. Brainstorm to get your creative juices flowing to think of where you can get more money. There are some ideas on this thread already (sell products, collect on your A/R, lay off some of your team, ...) and there are plenty more if you can take a quiet, calm moment to think about more options.
I'd be happy to brainstorm with you if you want to set up a call.

Doing this particular kind of research is easy and inexpensive. Call 5 customers who like and use your product and ask them this simple question: "Would you mind telling me the top three reasons you chose this product?"

You need to talk to five people because that's when some of their answers will start to overlap, and that will give you a sense of why people are attracted to your product.

People struggle with their Elevator Pitch for exactly this reason. They try to guess why people would be interested. When they just ask people why they were actually interested it leads to a much more engaging Elevator Pitch.

If you want help translating your customers' answers into a marketing strategy I'd be happy to set up a call.

That's a great goal! My monthly membership programs generate a lot of revenue from relatively small amounts of incremental effort.

In fact, I'm successfully selling a program like this right now (http://TrustedAdvisorCommunity.com). I've developed a particular series of emails that I send to people I think are right for the program. Some of them agree to sit down with me or discuss it further over the phone. Most of them end up signing up.

Bonus tip: You won't get anywhere selling it as an "infoproduct/coaching continuity program." If you want to clarify what you're selling and why people would want to join and turn that into a compelling title for your program, plus get access to my email templates, feel free to set up a call with me.

If you go in trying to sell him on your freelance services, and he's trying to sell you on joining his sales team, then it will be a waste of time for each of you.

If you both go into the meeting to learn more about the other person and see how you can help each other (maybe by making introductions to other people you know) then it could be very valuable.

If you haven't done a lot of one-on-ones (i.e. sitting down for coffee with non-prospects) then I highly recommend this quick video that covers who's worth meeting for a one-on-one, where and when to set it up, and exactly what to say and ask while you're there. You can watch the video here: http://improvandy.com/elevator-pitch/effective-1-on-1s/

If you want to discuss further ways to expand your referral network, feel free to set up a call with me.

If you check the stats I bet you'll find that there are very few google searches for "LeadMachine", so optimizing for that won't get you the kind of traffic you want. Figure out what people are actually searching for:
1. Go to the google adwords tool and type in some questions your customers ask you all the time. Things like "How do I attract new customers?" or "What's the best way of getting in front of new prospects" or "why did all my leads just dry up?"
2. See which of those phrases people are actually typing in.
3. Create a page on your website that answers one of those questions.

As long as your website is google-friendly, and since there's already traffic of people looking for this information, google will pick up these kinds of pages pretty quickly. And it's a lot easier (and will get you much faster results) than trying to clear the space for your brand name.

I've taken this approach with ImprovAndy.com. I get fewer than 5 hits a month on my company name, but I average 1,300 hits and 30 leads (i.e. new email addresses) _a day_ on landing pages that answer questions about business networking.

If you want to talk further about why getting your brand name listed on google isn't really worthwhile, and what you can do instead to drive traffic to your website, feel free to set up a call.

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